Healthy Beef Tallow for Frying Guilt-Free

It’s only my favorite fat! (Or it’s at least tied with butter.) It’s what has made it possible to enjoy things like onion rings and chicken nuggets again. No more worries about how I’m going to feel after eating fried food, or what the fat might be doing to my body. This healthy fat contains omega 3’s and CLA and comes from grass-fed cows. The omega 6:3 ratio is similar to fish, with no trans fats!

In September I bought 2.5# of beef fat from our local farm at $4.11/#. After rendering, it made 5.5 cups (44 oz.) of beef tallow, which comes to 23 cents/oz. The time before I got a little more and it came out to 21 cents/oz. So we’ll say it averages at about 22 cents/oz.

Their smaller size does cost more than rendering it yourself, but since the big tub stores well, why not get that, or split it with friends? Rendering isn’t difficult but it’s gross and sticky and smelly, and the batches seem to take forever to boil down. This last one took a week. Don’t ask me why, my batch before that took only a couple days. OK, maybe it was because I didn’t want to cut it all up good like I did last time, but that was so disgusting. I know, I said to put on your big girl panties and just do it, but it wasn’t JUST that it was gross and sticky, it also took for EVER to get all the gunk out. I’m so excited that I won’t have to render beef fat again – it’s not very often that buying something ready-to-use is cheaper than doing it yourself!

A couple questions about tallow for John at U.S. Wellness Meats:

1. Does tallow need to be refrigerated?

We suggest you convey it to smaller containers upon arrival and keep one out and freeze the balance for smarter long term storage. If you use a high volume, you can take from the large container at room temperature. The product will oxidize from the surface.

2. Are you saying we shouldn’t use the top layer after it’s been stored? Is this only for room temp tallow or for frozen tallow, too?

There is no effect on frozen tallow. If it is sitting on the kitchen counter, the top 1/4 inch will turn color as it is exposed to oxygen. You simply scrape that off and get down to a fresh white layer. If you use off of the container daily, you will not see the oxidation. Keep in mind our pioneering ancestors did not have refrigeration.

3. Does it need to be stored in an airtight container?

No, Tupperware containers will work fine.

4. How many times do you recommend that it can be safely reused?

I reuse mine 3-4 times, but don’t have any research to show how many times is “OK”, and what exactly happens when it “goes bad”…? The food safety rule is “never”, but our pioneer ancestors sure did. Use your own judgment based on your own experience.

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Thanks for the info on storage!! I actually ordered this product last month, and wasn’t sure how to store it. It took FOREVER, and a LOT of work to get that lid off… my poor husband. It’s sitting on the floor of my pantry closet now, but I’m going to aliquot it and freeze it now that I’ve read this.

I made french fries, and they are sooooooooo good!!! I strained the used tallow through a paper towel, and will reuse it a few more times.

On a final note, US Wellness has the most excellent customer service! I had the wrong products shipped to me, and received a credit, while keeping the wrong product. Then the exact same thing happened again, twice in a row. They are letting me keep the wrong items again, and have immediately shipped the correct products this time, instead of issuing the credit. Plus they have assured me that they are working to avoid this issue in the future. I have received such crappy customer service so often, that this was experience was awesome! So I’m not trying to scare anyone from ordering, but commending their commitment to keeping their customers happy! Plus, we have absolutely LOVED everthing we’ve purchased from them… very high quality products!

I would love to enter this. Number 1 has no link even though javascript is enabled and no ad-blocker. So, not sure what else to do, except let you know that I’ve subscribed to your feed. Can I get at least one entry for that???

I emailed five people, added your link to my facebook what am I thinking page (alreay friends), already am a subscriber to your RSS, went to the Wellness page and signed up. Thanks for the opportunity.

I subscribe to your RSS reader. Thanks for all the work you do in helping me learn how to eat healthier and feed my family so much better so they aren’t in the position that I am when they get this age!

Wow, so many comments already – you guys are so stinkin’ fun! I love it when others are freaks over things like BEEF FAT as much as I am.

Keep in mind if you don’t win that you could always go in with friends for the big one, or buy the small one OR you *could* render it yourself. You can’t just go without french fries, onion rings, fried fish or whatever you want to make!

Soli, no more coupon code, but after the contest is done I think there will be a coupon for those that didn’t win (not positive yet), so you may want to wait to place your order.

Oh my goodness what an amazing giveaway! I’ve never actually cooked w/ tallow before but have been wanting to order some! This would such a blessing for our family! So I have entered the giveaway, friended you on FB, posted about this on FB, followed you on Twitter, retweeted, emailed 5 friends, and signed up to receive your blog updates. So I think that should be 5 entries. Thanks so much!

Hope I win! I love tallow fries! So… I’ve entered the competition, friended you on FB and posted about it, signed up for blog updates, follow you on twitter and retweeted, and emailed 5 friends. 5 entries!

I just made sure I was signed up for your email list, followed and RT’ed on Twitter, hit you up on facebook and did a status update, stumbled you up, and linked you on my blog. http://homebreweddiscontent.blogspot.com

Thanks for such a great giveaway! My Q is do you just do small batch frys of things or do you put the tallow in a deep fat fryer and leave it there (straining it occasionally like a commercial fryer)? Thanks again!

Woohoo!! I would love to win a bucket o fat! But I do have to say that I can’t get much cheaper than an organic grass fed beef farm giving me 12 lbs of fat for free that I rendered myself. Course that was a one time deal.

I ordered some beef fat from my local farm. I will render it next week. I just finished the last of my beef tallow last night when I made some yummy fried potatoes. I didn’t have to think about reusing it because the potatoes soaked up all the tallow and we just ate it. Hmmm, maybe this isn’t normal. Oh, well. On second thought, I guess it’s normal since I didn’t make fries and used only 6/7 tablespoons to make the fried potatoes. I’m simply rambling. I need to find something to do…

I already subscribe to your RSS feed on my google homepage, I just friended you on facebook & updated my status, and I emailed 5 friends about it. I’m about to blab about it on the forum I frequent daily in the whole foods section – I don’t know if that will count for anything, but all the mamas there will love to enter! So if you see a bunch of first time visitors hop on over from thebabywearer.com you’ll know I sent them.

OK! I entered on the giveaway page. I blogged about it and linked back to you. I already subscribe to your updates via Google Reader. I follow you on Twitter and I just retweeted. I’m a friend on Facebook and my Twitter will post on Facebook too. So excited!

Hey Kelly, I agree that rendering your own can be a pain, but it’s the only way I’ve gone, so far. I got a bunch of pork fat for cheap from my meat guy, cut it into big chunks, then ran it through my food processor (with the S blade). It was super gross and looked like–get this–peppermint ice cream. But it was pureed when it went into the stock pot and rendered very quickly.

1. i entered at site 2. i friend’d you and posted the link in my fb status 3. i subscribed to your RSS 4. i stumbled upon 5. i emailed 5 friends (the first time i’ve ever done so for a contest!) 6. i blogged at http://jayshiddenideas.xanga.com/weblogpreview

I would love this tallow! I have a local source for lard, but can’t find tallow anywhere. I tried to get my own fat to render when I bought my portion of the cow, but I couldn’t even get it that way. Pick me, pick me! (I’m a subscriber, too).

Hi, Kelly, I signed up for the giveaway at US Wellness Meats and since I don’t have a facebook page my daughter Heather signed us up for the drawing on her page . She added you as a friend and posted about the drawing.

Lard can be obtained from any part of the pig as long as there is a high concentration of fatty tissue. The highest grade of lard, known as leaf lard, is obtained from the “flare” visceral fat deposit surrounding the kidneys and inside the loin. Leaf lard has little pork flavor, making it ideal for use in baked goods, where it is treasured for its ability to produce flaky, moist pie crusts. The next highest grade of lard is obtained from fatback, the hard subcutaneous fat between the back skin and muscle of the pig. The lowest grade (for purposes of rendering into lard) is obtained from the soft caul fat surrounding digestive organs, such as small intestines, though caul fat is often used directly as a wrapping for roasting lean meats or in the manufacture of p

I enter the contest and subscribed to your blog. This looks really interesting! I’ve been using coconut oil and olive oil and would love to branch out a bit more. If for some chance I actually win, could you please give me a few more days to get back to you? My father in law passed away a few weeks ago and the service is November 12 out of state. We will be traveling and I won’t have accesss to a computer until at least the 16th. I normally wouldn’t sign up under these circumstances, but this is such a great giveaway. Thanks.

Hi Kelly, When I read this post I actually had my US Wellness meats shopping cart open in another window. I had 3 small tallows in my cart so winning this would be fabulous. I entered the contest and I’ve already signed up for email updates long ago. I blogged about the contest and stumbled this post. I also emailed 5 others to spread the word.

I’d really love to try this stuff. It sounds fabulous. I : 1. entered the giveaway, 2. signed up for your email updates, 3. am now following you on Twitter and tweeted the contest and the URL to this page, 4. friended you on Facebook, posted about the giveaway on my Facebook status, and included the URL to this page in my status update. 5. emailed 5 friends about this giveaway and included the URL to this page 6. and Stumbled this post.

For a grand total of six entries. Did I say that I really want to win?

3. Signed up for my email updates or RSS feed 4. Following you on Twitter and tweeted about the giveaway. 5. Did this too – Friend me on Facebook and post about the giveaway on your Facebook status. 6. Email 5 friends about the giveaway, did this 7. Stumble this post and comment telling me that you did, signed up for this trying to figure out how to stumble it, but I will get it done. Thanks, I am so hoping to win this, we love our beef fat!

Well, I don’t tweet or facebook or link or blog, but I sure would love to cook with this prize!!! I’ll have to take my chances with one lucky entry! So while I may not have the technological prowess of some other entrants, my fingers and toes are flexible enough to ALL be crossed. Thanks for the chance!

Alright, I got a new stumble account, just so I could stumble this (for some reason it kind of confused me). 1 – entered at the site 2 – tweeted about it 3 – did the facebook one 4 – stumbled it 5 – signed up for updates Thanks!

hi, love your blog… i’m a lurker, a fairly newbie, former raw vegan turned totally nurishing traditions and will be starting gaps intro next week. i sure would love all that gorgeous tallow for my program! i just ordered some food from us wellnes a couple weeks ago. yummiest braunsweiger ever! i did one entry -followed the link and entered the giveaway. thanks, sheri

Welcome! I’m Kelly, a homeschooling Mom from Michigan, and I've been busy sharing real food recipes and shining light on the TRUTH about food and health since 2007. Stick around and become one of my reader friends so we can help each other get better, feel great, and raise healthy kids! Read more...

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